Catalyst
by soulful-sin
Summary: A popular misnomer is that geniuses tend to be mentally unstable. But Jimmy Neutron's exempt from this, isn't he?


Author's Note: I started this playing with the popular misconception that geniuses are mentally unstable. Whether or not that's true, I cannot verify, but it holds true in cases I've heard. No one has ever considered the thought that our beloved Jimmy might be mentally unstable himself. Therefore, I pursued it. A little bit of ingenuity would do this section good.

Jimmy Neutron belongs to John A. Davis, Nickelodeon, and other associates.

"Are you friend or foe? Because I used to know."

Catalyst

Geniuses enjoy a mixed reputation. On one hand, they pioneer our technology, creative fields, and revolutionize our lives. Conversely, it's argued that geniuses, due to the stress placed upon them by society, the inability to meld with the hoi polloi, the complications arising from bearing the burden of their intellect, mistreatment, and ostracism, tend to "go off the deep end". However, enveloped in a warm, caring environment where their gifts receive encouragement and flourish, the likelihood of this diminishes. It never entirely disappears; in a society where others prize stupidity and false acts of bravado/lack of common sense, it lurks.

Mental illnesses are heritable. The potential to develop exists in the gene pool, although simply because it exists may mean nothing at all. The right stresses must be present as well. If nothing triggers its onslaught, the person may never suffer from it. It may linger in the background and pass on harmlessly to the next offspring.

Mental illnesses and intellect are the disagreeable companions. They cohabitate because one may facilitate the other. As the statement "most geniuses go mad" applies, so does "the mind can be one's own worst enemy". Ensconced in the pretense, the mind may be all encompassing.

To someone who values their mind above everything else, this can be a very dangerous prospect.

* * *

James Isaac Neutron completed his latest invention and wiped his brow. Goddard trotted to his master and a plastic white hand offered him a glass of ice cold lemonade. Another scorcher in Retroville, but, because of the lab's subterranean location and proper cooling conduits, it hardly fazed the boy genius. He derived his sweat from laboring arduously over his work. In fact, he had yet to perceive the light of day beyond his artificial illumination. Ere sunrise, an idea struck him and he'd darted to the lab to plan it out.

Lately, ideas bombarded him and, perhaps because of his hormones, his moods swung unpredictably. Therefore, while he appreciated his creative influx, it raised his ire when his friends arrived halfway through the project. His friends bore the brunt of his frustration, but they, as usual, took it with a grain of salt. Geniuses were eccentric. Jimmy never intentionally verbally abused his friends and, in the rare event a force moved them to spend hours over it, they could sympathize.

His thoughts swirled in that familiar, unwanted dark conjugation again. During his travails, often after an interruption for whatever reason, he briefly contemplated whether or not the 'lesser intellects' weighed him down. In the past, he'd shrugged it off, an anomaly, but it resurfaced. He'd debated that Carl and Sheen were friends and therefore, they naturally desired to see him. The turning point transpired when Sheen and Carl interrupted during a particularly difficult adjustment and their arrival heralded the implosion of his unstable machine. Perhaps it had been fated to self destruct, but if they hadn't banged energetically on his lab door, he might have circumvented that.

Carl and Sheen hadn't pestered him today. In fact, they hadn't visited him yesterday, either. He remembered an argument and demanding that they learn manners and call ahead first. That moment, the mutinous thoughts materialized again. Why should he waste time with simpletons when science merited it more? They only impeded him. True, he utilized Carl in his experiments, but he could also fabricate test dummies too and not fret over repercussions.

Vox announced visitors and Jimmy groaned, striding to the computer screen to investigate. Cindy, Libby, Sheen, and Carl all waited at his door. The towheaded girl tapped her foot impatiently, Carl fidgeted, Sheen bounced hyperactively, and Libby coolly reclined against the 'clubhouse' wall and listened to her CD player. Instead of the usual pleasure he experienced when they asked him to join them, irritation grasped him. He'd spent over seven hours on his latest invention. He was weary and in no mood for juvenile fancies. Why did they have to choose now to bother him?

Goddard cocked his head at him and inquired why he hadn't rushed to their side. He indicated his master's endeavors clearly facilitated relaxation and why not with his friends? Jimmy wished to refute this, but Goddard had a point. After exercising his potential to the maximum, he'd likened in the past to calmly conversing with his friends and a heated debate with Cindy. The recent rash of belligerence towards them held no logical merit other than the accustomed "inferiority" explanation and he'd essentially grown up with them. Why choose now to find their activities pedantic and sophomoric?

Shaking his head, bewildered at his thoughts erring nature, he ascended the stairs and met them. With the exception of Sheen, they were all the same age as him. True, he surpassed them in certain aspects, but why should that become a problem? Why, indeed.

"You okay, Jim?" Carl inquired earnestly, his mottled green eyes wavering uncertainly. Jimmy smiled weakly.

_It's nothing. A passing fallacy. True, it's lasted a fortnight, but time with my friends ought to eradicate it._

"Fine, Carl," Jimmy replied, smiling benignly. _I hope._

* * *

Jimmy tuned out their conversation while the group walked to the Candy Bar. The humidity meant less people on the streets and more relishing their A/C. As anticipated, because of its ice cream and cold refreshments, the Candy Bar was quite busy and they had to wait to place an order. Carl and Sheen argued whether a llama super hero could upstage Ultra Lord and Libby and Cindy discussed a private matter. Jimmy mechanically marched forward as the line diminished, but his attention was focused inward. How much could he accomplish without Carl, Sheen, Libby, and Cindy beckoning?

He'd tried in the past to exceed Leonardo Da Vinci's output and then ruled that his friends and family were more important. What surprised him was he no longer held that perspective. He stepped forward again and accidentally walked into Cindy.

"Watch it, Neutron!" Cindy snapped, whirling on him. He glared back and, after apologizing, delved into introspection. By arguing with Cindy, wasn't he wasting time otherwise best used elsewhere? Lamentably, he couldn't quite rule that out as a strict candidate there because he relished the conflict. She was a worthy adversary, after all.

And Carl and Sheen were his friends. Therefore, it stood to reason that he ought to be pleased right now, rather than ruing his decision. Cindy prodded him in the chest and he blinked, brought back to the present. The line, he noted, had yet to enter the Candy Bar. In the sweltering heat, the air itself swam and sweat trickled down her neck.

"What's with you, Neutron?" she growled. "You're not boasting about your new invention or blathering on about a scientific phenomenon that none of us care about. You get lost in that cavernous head of yours?"

"None of your business," Jimmy replied coolly, relocating his thought train and pursing it. Cindy prodded him again.

"You'd better not be thinking about Betty Quinlan!" she retorted and the door shut on Libby, Sheen, and Carl; this left them standing outside. Her t-shirt stuck to her skin and her hair was plastered to her neck and scalp. If they remained out here for much longer, it wouldn't be a pretty sight.

"I assure you that's not the case," he said and indeed, Betty was far from his musings. Cindy scoffed, apparently unconvinced. She fixed him a stern look and he glanced away.

"Then what? Spit it out," she snapped and his eyes flashed. From irksome, she'd vaulted into the arena of cumbersome and potentially infuriating. If he didn't have to deal with people like her…

"It's none of your concern," Jimmy snapped. "Leave me be, Vortex. It's too hot to argue."

"Fine," she growled. "We'll continue this inside."

"No, we won't. I'm not in the mood." Jimmy tapped a foot impatiently and, when the door reopened, he squeezed inside. Despite his irritation, he yanked Cindy along with him so she wouldn't have to endure the heat any longer. They were crushed against the door and causing a fire hazard, but the place was packed anyway.

"What's with you?" she said and he glanced sharply at her. She bristled, glaring back.

"You're more of a jerk than you are normally, Nerd-tron."

_She's noticed too, _Jimmy thought and subconsciously added that to his tally of Cindy's benefits. It didn't take a rocket scientist to deduce his irrational mood swings and unusual behavior, but he was pleased Cindy wasn't too wrapped up in her own affairs to mention it. Or maybe he was just pleased that he had a sparring partner again. It was hard to figure out what he thought when he thought it nowadays. His mind pulsated and it was running away with him.

* * *

_Moody, secretive…a reflection of adolescence and 'hormones' or what? He **is **more brusque and insulting than usual and I'll get to the bottom of it_, Cindy thought, staring at him as if she could bore holes into his skull. He cringed, stepping forward.

"Is this all part of some elaborate display for your latest lame gizmo?" she said and the look he gave froze her. It was not a look of open hostility they employed during their banters. It was a look warning her to drop the subject before he tore into her and raised a ruckus. Unfortunately, Cindy never backed down from a fight and if he thought otherwise, he had another thing coming.

"Speaking of which, I haven't seen a single one of your new ones yet," she continued. "What's the matter, not up to snuff?"

"Why should _you _care? You never concern yourself with my efforts." The line progressed and Jimmy's shoulders stiffened.

"Why are you being so cold?" she snapped. "And, on that topic, why do you keep brushing us off? You're too good for us now?"

The answer he gave her surprised her. It was one of weary bemusement and spoken in a rather defeatist tone. Jimmy Neutron seldom conceded defeat. It was one of the many ways in which they were similar.

"I don't know, Vortex."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" she exploded and the others glanced at her. Considering it a standard disagreement between the two, they promptly turned the other way. Libby, Carl, and Sheen pretended to ignore them too, but they both knew they were listening in the likelihood someone said something irrevocable.

"How can you _not know _if you're too good for us?" she hissed. "Has your big brain blown a fuse?"

"And I suppose your cranium, containing the normal brain capacity, is therefore regarded as perfectly stable and exempt from contempt?" he fired back. Although she was riled up and raring to go, her mind still processed what he said. This was not how the argument was supposed to go. They were supposed to swap insults and then leave in a huff. This whole premise felt wrong to her.

"Yeah, well, when you walk around with a head the size of Texas, that's what happens!" Cindy snapped back, putting her hands on her hips.

"Peon," Jimmy said and Cindy's eyes flashed dangerously. Whether it was the heat raising her ire, his attitude, or the callous way he'd dismissed her, she didn't know. But boy, was he in for it.

"Excuse me? I'm automatically subservient to you because I don't carry a ten pound dead weight between my shoulders?" she said and Libby tugged her arm. They were approaching the counter and Sam, fatigued with the restaurant's business and Cindy and Jimmy's argument, snapped his fingers.

"It obviously limits you," he said and she blinked. She thought they'd progressed beyond swapping these types of insults. Usually they evolved onto differing opinions about scientific ideas, which were a façade so she could have an excuse to argue with him on something and get in his face about it. Not to mention there was a vicious undertone to his remarks.

"Are you two going to order or bite each other's heads off?" Sam interjected and Jimmy, glancing at Cindy, replied 'neither' and stormed out. Cindy stared in his wake and, giving Sam the same response, darted after him. The ice cream could wait.

* * *

"Neutron!" Cindy snapped and halted, unnerved by the coldness in his sapphire eyes. Putting her hands on her hips, she faced him.

"Vortex, I've no time for your foolishness," he retorted. "Already I waste precious time discoursing with you."

"Time better used for what?" Cindy replied haughtily. "More inventions that you never show anyone?"

"I thought you preferred I not disclose my inventions, since you dub them ineffectual and inept," Jimmy snapped, fingering his jetpack's release button. She stepped forward, ready to bodily force him to continue the conversation.

"Not all of them," she relented and he gave her a shrewd look. Gulping, she strode forth, close enough to touch him. His sapphire eyes widened, but he rebuked her advance. There was a measure of frigidity that startled her.

"You acquiesce I'm not utterly incompetent," he muttered. "Astounding."

Cindy glared at him and put her hands on her hips. Sparks shot belligerently out of her emerald eyes and any one with any sense at all would have retreated. Then again, Jimmy never backed down from an argument with Cindy under any circumstances nor did he shirk away. Unfortunately, his former point stood. Debating unimportant factoids with her impeded his progress.

At least, that was what the little voice in his head whispered. Whether it was resentment, upset, confusion, or something else entirely, he found himself taking it out on her. She was here and she antagonized him; her

"I paid you a compliment, Neutron, and you insult me?" she hissed and he scoffed.

"You obviously don't know the meaning of the word 'insult', Vortex," he shot back and she shivered. He hadn't called her "Cindy" at all today. It reminded her of their not so playful banter back when they first met, but she thought they'd evolved beyond that. Snarling, but worried nonetheless, she thrust her face into his in the hopes it'd spur him to their normal arguments. It failed.

Shoving her aside, he flew back to the lab. Proverbial feathers ruffled, Cindy huffed and strode not to the Candy Bar but to his lab. He refused to speak with her.

* * *

Jimmy paced the lab and Goddard followed him across the room. The boy genius's eyes shone maliciously, not unlike his evil clone, and the dog shied away. The clones were indeed parts of Jimmy that would, under the right circumstances, arise, but much more exaggerated than what existed in him. Yet this version of Jimmy, supposedly the original, had a different side to him altogether. Goddard monitored him closely; Jimmy's insane side.

"How can I reach my full potential when they hold me back?" Jimmy raged. "They're infantile, sophomoric, and every second I linger in their company I sacrifice my intellect to their prepubescent games!"

Goddard opened his screen to communicate, "But they're your friends."

Jimmy scoffed and uttered something that had plagued him recently. Fists balled, he pivoted, rounding on Goddard. The mechanical dog whimpered, retreating from his master. Created with a limited amount of fear, Jimmy broached that right now.

"Friends! Ha! If they were truly my friends, then they would be at my level! They're nothing but dead weight!"

Goddard barked shrilly and Jimmy gaped at what he'd said. What he believed, too. His thoughts whirled madly and he slumped in his lab chair. It was bad enough that those nasty little mementos popped up more and more frequently. Worse that he'd verbalized them and now that he had, the measure of regret he had was nowhere near as large as it ought to be. _Because_, that insidious voice whispered in his mind, _it's true. They restrain you. You would be better off alone._

"Thanks," a voice said tartly and Jimmy glanced up to see Cindy standing in the doorway. She twirled a lock of his hair between her fingers and his first inclination was to apologize. His next was brought on by the rage that the voice had induced, the one he started to agree with.

"Get _out_," he growled. "I want nothing to do with you, Vortex."

Her eyes strayed to the latest thing he'd constructed and she ignored his words to examine it. Striding forward, he shoved her away from it. She opened her mouth to protest and he shoved her again, this time rather hard. Cindy lost her balance and fell to her knees before righting herself. Her eyes hooked onto his and Goddard yipped, the forgotten spectator.

"Don't _touch _me, Neutron," she snapped, bristling.

"You trespass into my lab, my sanctuary, and you have the audacity to argue?" he retorted, glancing at Goddard, cocking his head at him. The dog whined, displeased with how his master was taking this. He opened his screen to warn Cindy when Jimmy commanded Vox to physically hoist her out.

Once she was gone, albeit unhappily, Jimmy descended into his chair again and pondered.

_I should feel remorse…I should apologize…but all I feel is malevolence and dark amusement. _

Cindy brushed the dirt off her jeans and Jimmy laughed. Hidden underneath a table, Goddard whined again.

* * *

Over the next month, Jimmy grew more distant, ostracizing everyone from his closest friends and family to random strangers. He would be polite if the situation necessitated it, but there was always a nasty undertone to it. A sullen, angry one that communicated he deemed the others 'inferior' to him. Although occasionally he would apologize, more often than not he would let the transgression remain.

Any budding romance between Jimmy and Cindy broke apart at the seams. Jimmy's former affection toward her dissipated, rendering her hurt and frustrated simultaneously. She suddenly wasn't "good enough" for him. She'd insulted him back, but it'd made no difference. He was aloof and condescending.

To Sheen and Carl he was, if anything, worse. No one was spared and the apologies disappeared all together. Around that time, he insisted his parents home school him so he wouldn't have to deal with the "imbeciles encumbering me". His mother objected and he invented a machine that duplicated his schooling, thus rendering public school obsolete. Once he cleared it with the school board, he spent more time in his lab than ever; he seldom surfaced to speak with even his parents.

* * *

Fierce knocking on his lab door interrupted Jimmy and he angrily swept away the safety goggles, switched off the blowtorch, and glared at the screen. He didn't warn her at all this time. Rather, he activated a switch and one of his contraptions catapulted her back onto her front lawn. He then restored Vox's security parameters around the "clubhouse" and shielded it from any unwanted visitors. Cindy wasn't given the chance to do as much as say "hello".

* * *

Mad people generally believe themselves to be completely in control of their faculties; it takes a measure of sanity to realize your own insanity. Outsiders question what happened to their family member and friend and may understand better than the person what transpires.

Jimmy Neutron was no different. Descending into madness himself, his social desires fled and he spent all his time laboring in his lab. Whenever his mother appeared to invite him to partake of his meals, he refuted her. Whenever Carl and Sheen seldom requested his company, he forcefully ejected them from the lab's vicinity. Whenever Cindy sparked an old debate to incite the Jimmy she knew and loved, he either ignored her outright or demeaned her horribly. They clashed more often now, but their arguments had acquired nastier overtones. Cindy found herself on the defensive and not in the way she'd relished before. Jimmy was out to get her.

Jimmy's inventions too took on malicious purposes. He invented things without considering their repercussions and if it affected someone adversely, he seemed not to care. In fact, others debated whether he cared about anyone at all but himself. All signs pointed to no. He hadn't sojourned beyond his lab in days and refused to answer to calls, direct summons, or Cindy slamming a sledgehammer into Vox's scanner (an assault that caused him to activate a device catapulting her into a line of garbage cans and then the wall).

The little voice whispering awful things about his friends and family consumed his mind. He couldn't think clearly, logically about his surroundings. He assumed everyone was out to monopolize on his hard work and the only way to protect himself was to covet everything. They were jealous they lacked his intellect. They represented nothing important to him. Not anymore.

Goddard yipped and Jimmy regarded him callously. That dog, his only friend now, pestered him. He was perfectly capable of walking himself and returning to the lab on his own, but he insisted Jimmy accompany him. He harbored the delusion it would cheer the boy and restore a sense of normalcy. Bouncing around, he hopped onto Jimmy's lap and licked his face. Jimmy shoved him away.

"Exercise yourself!" Jimmy snapped. "That's an order, Goddard!"

Goddard whined and Jimmy advanced on him with a wrench. Both the boy genius and the mechanical dog comprehended its implications. Jimmy had already threatened him once with it. He warned the next time he disobeyed a direct order and sought to bring his friends and family back into his life, he would deactivate him and dissemble the parts. Goddard glanced at Jimmy and, if he were a real dog, he would have been quaking fearfully. This wasn't the master that created him. This wasn't his Jimmy. It was an imposter, wearing his clothes, possessing his brain power, and using his lab. He contained none of the sweetness, care, and devotion Jimmy exhibited.

Turning his back on Goddard, Jimmy idly switched on the TV, displaying the local news. Furtively observing it, he ceased his experimentation to watch a segment on him. His parents, Cindy, Carl, Sheen, and Libby were all being interviewed and they expressed the opinion, in varying degrees, that he'd lost his sanity. Rage consumed him. How _dare _they betray him! How _dare _they appear on television to decry him! How _dare _they prostrate about, pompous and ignominious! Whatever tethers linking him to them snapped and he slammed his tools on the lab table. His experiment could wait. He would contend with them _now_.

* * *

Ironic, if he stopped to consider it that the voice in the back of his head contorted into his normal thoughts and the sane one had been relegated to its former place. Blinking in the natural light, Jimmy glared at his house and then his friends and family, still congregated. The news report had apparently been live. That irked him all the more. How _dare _they ignore his gifts and glance shallowly to comment upon insignificant trifles like his behavior toward them. How _dare _they behave like they cared about him when their minds were incapable of this. They were peons, cretins, miniscule humans compared to him.

"Jimmy!" his mother cried, wrapping her arms about him. "We hoped that segment would-"

"You deceived me," Jimmy remarked coldly, no hint of affection anywhere in his voice or his body language. Weaseling out of her arms, he glared at the rest of them. Carl shivered, ducking behind Sheen, who in turn hid behind Libby. Jimmy cast them a contemptuous gaze and scrutinized Cindy. She shuddered, but maintained her position.

"You comprehend nothing! You are inferior to me! Your puerile minds fail to grasp anything beyond the simplest equation! You are nothing. I disavow myself of you. I purge myself of your mutinous actions and vile facades. You cannot appreciate my genius."

"Jimbo," Hugh said warningly and Jimmy glared hatefully at him. He unconsciously recoiled, sliding closer to Judy.

"What's with the attitude, Nerd-tron?" Cindy snapped and Jimmy rounded on her. Shoving her into Libby, he pivoted and strode away from them. They sickened him, each and every one of them.

"You have burdened me for the last time, Vortex," Jimmy snarled. "I shall reiterate the promise I made to Goddard. The next time you interfere, there will be nothing left of you with which to gripe."

The group, as a whole, widened their eyes and Judy snatched Jimmy's shoulder. He shrugged her off and curled his lip in disdain. His caustic gaze swept Carl, cringing; Sheen, recoiling; Libby, who shuddered despite herself; Judy, who reserved her fear out of concern for him; Hugh, who looked torn between doing the same as his wife and behaving as Carl and Sheen; and Cindy, angry, fretful, and petrified at once. She stepped forward, emerald eyes metaphorically burning in their sockets. Jimmy's sapphire ones matched their ferocity.

"Was that a _threat_, Neutron?" Cindy snapped. "Are you threatening to _kill _me?"

"Well, well," he replied malevolently, "you're not so dim after all."

"Jimmy!" Judy gasped. "You can't be serious!"

Cindy, meanwhile, fought an explosion. Her lower lip trembled and Libby draped an arm about her best friend's shoulders. Carl and Sheen exchanged a glance of utter horror. Hugh joined his wife's side and it seemed he was on the verge of a lecture.

"Stay out of my way. All of you," Jimmy snapped. "Especially _you, _Vortex."

"I don't know you anymore!" Cindy retorted and her lip trembled again. Regardless of her fury toward him, she was closer to tears than anger. He didn't care. Kicking a pebble at her, he returned to his lab. He would dictate when the simpletons deserved to confer with him, not them. And he'd enough of them. Speaking with them wasted time. Everything non work related wasted time and his genius.

* * *

Cindy reclined on her bed and Libby switched off her CD player to comfort her. The door was closed and locked, a good thing because Cindy had been crying on and off. Normally, she never deigned to descend to the point of tears, because tears were a sign of weakness. Nonetheless, today was the first time in a fortnight she'd spoken to Jimmy and he'd threatened her.

"I hate him!" she growled and Libby shook her head. Cindy hugged her knees and Libby crawled across the bed to hug her. She knew better than to accept Cindy's words at face value. Stroking her hair, she let her cry out her frustration and anger.

"You're not fooling anyone anymore, girl," Libby cautioned and Cindy's eyes, watery, flooded again. She rested her head against the African American girl's and her body quaked with suppressed sobs. She was trying to get a handle on herself, honestly she was, but it proved exceedingly difficult.

"You love him and that's why it hurts so much," Libby murmured. Cindy said nothing.

"He- he's not the Neutron I…" she hesitated before adding "love" and shook her head. Grabbing a tissue, she dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose. Tossing it neatly into the trash receptacle, she glanced out the window morosely.

"He's not my Jimmy," she settled for and glanced at Libby. Libby nodded.

"He's not his own Jimmy anymore either."

* * *

The first report marked a cascade of articles and news coverage regarding the boy genius's mental stability. Evidently, because his inventions had incited so much mayhem in the past, people concluded that he'd deliberately miscalculated and had always wished harm upon his fellow civilian. An assemblage of allegedly "concerned citizens" expressed the necessity of banishing Jimmy lest he rampage through Retroville once more and harm them and their loved ones. Yet despite their unfounded indictments, Jimmy had no intention of doing this. He merely wanted to be left alone to invent. He couldn't care less about others and, while he was repulsive to spend time with, he was no real threat.

Unless, of course, the others decided to make an issue out of it. Then the tables turned and any apathy Jimmy exhibited toward the town ended. Then whatever happened to them, be it death or injury, he held no responsibility or blame. They "got in his way" and thus, had to be eliminated.

Buried far below his conscious endeavors subsisted the shred of sanity he possessed. It lurked, sometimes striking at random during his formulations, and he realized that if he was indeed insane, then he had to be sane enough to remove himself from the picture. His irrational thought processes, for once, concurred. It believed the others were too inept to appreciate him, while the shred of sanity he had stated that if he didn't exit Retroville expediently, the people who still loved and cared about him would suffer. He could control his actions toward them no more than one could stop a train by standing on the tracks and imploring it mentally to halt.

However, conversely, his lab was here. The problem presented little trouble in solving, since the hyper cube sat pristinely on the lab table. Goddard, still active and increasingly worried about him, trotted up to the chair but lingered just out of arm's reach. Jimmy never showed him affection any more, only abuse. On the rare occasion that this was not the case, it was through catching him off guard.

Perhaps he'd multiply his output by leaving here, too. Retroville itself stunted him. Here, his sanity tugged at his senses and he glimpsed Cindy, heart broken, occasionally through Vox's monitors. Outwardly, he disregarded her, but…this had to be done. None would appreciate him and therefore, they deserved not his company. Grabbing the hyper cube, he left his lab and sucked the entire contents inside, including his rocket and hover car. He would fly via his jetpack. Goddard could keep up and if he couldn't, then that was his loss.

"Jimmy," Judy said, planting new herbs in the garden. She dusted her gloves off and tucked them into the waistband of her gardening belt alongside the trowel. Maintaining her distance, she glanced at the empty earth where his lab once occupied and then his determined face.

"It's _James_," Jimmy retorted. "I have shed that putrid nickname."

"James," she said cautiously and reluctance crept into her jade eyes. Walking to him, she halted before they actually touched. She feared him because she no longer knew him. Jimmy comprehended that innate truth. He hardly knew himself and the little he grasped petrified his sanity.

"Your father and I-" she started and he shook his head and held up a hand to stop her.

"Shall trouble me no longer," Jimmy finished. "I plan to leave Retroville."

"Leave?" she repeated, dumbstruck. "But, Jimmy-"

He glared sternly and she hastily amended her sentence.

"James, you're only eleven. Where would you _go_? You're a child!" she exclaimed and, reaching into his bag, he retrieved a new invention, aging him instantly. An eighteen year old tapped a foot impatiently on the ground in his place. She gawked and quickly recovered. Well, it was bound to happen eventually, modifying his age.

"Legally, cracking into the right computers and assembling the proper documents, I'm an adult. Mentally, I surpass some adults in maturity, anyway. You need not worry."

"Jimmy…" she whispered. "What happened to you?"

"The inevitable," he replied, smiling humorlessly. "I shall see Cindy before I set off and then you will never see me again."

Aghast, she called out for Hugh, but Jimmy activated his jetpack and soared into the sky. Ignoring any clamors for his presence, he flew to Cindy's house. She was the last bit of business left and then he could shed this pretense.

* * *

"I think I loved you once."

The words jarred her out of a bittersweet reverie and she stared at him upside down because she'd been laying flat on her back. Rolling over, she assumed an offensive position; he was trespassing, after all, and hadn't she left the window locked? Nonetheless, a cool breeze penetrated the room and he must have broken in. She wished she could say she had more than ambivalence in reference to that and him.

"Excuse me?" she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. He smirked, unaffected by her anger.

"When thought processes followed a more logical pattern, when I permitted my emotions to dominate me, when we were rivals and simultaneously not, I loved you."

Cindy gaped at him and she trembled, pivoting to grip the chair. She was struggling again, but this time with a confession. He scoffed, glancing around her room and the mementos of her life. Trifles, in his opinion, but they amused her. Cindy was too easily amused.

"You loved me too. Or do you still?" he inquired and she shied away. She didn't know why, but somehow, this conversation felt all wrong. It held a finality she didn't much like. And the past tense of 'love' unnerved her. If he no longer let his emotions "dominate" him, then had he ceased emotional attachment entirely? Was that why he no longer loved her? Because he was incapable of it?

"Admit it, Vortex," he said. "Admit you loved me and the little piece of mind I afford my old attachments can rest in peace."

"Why should I?" she snapped, eyes flashing. "If I permit that to rest, then I'll lose you for good."

"But Cindy," he replied, smiling humorlessly, "you never had me to begin with."

"You said…" she faltered, her already broken heart shattering again. The sense of time fleeing her pervaded her and she wondered if she had confessed her feelings earlier, if the situation would have been different. If he would be the same.

"I said I loved you, yes." He strode toward her and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. She slapped it off and the smile returned to its former smirk. He treated her like a doll only he'd tired of human dolls.

"But that happened before I subdued it and myself. I don't love you anymore. You carry no sway over me."

"Then it's too late…" she whispered, hugging herself. He nodded and surprised her by kissing her on the lips. The brush lasted naught but a second and she reached for him to pull him closer. He shoved her away.

"You have what you want from me."

He stepped to the window, but she yanked on his jetpack's shoulder strap. He shoved her away again, harshly and into her computer desk. By the time she recovered, he'd flown out the window.

* * *

Goddard trailed him and he whimpered when they flew over the town's limits. Jimmy said nothing, not a reprimand or a placation. He felt no remorse for his actions and, within his bag, the hyper cube bounced. He'd packed food and the essentials in addition to his lab equipment. Through his lab, he produced sufficient reserves to fulfill his basic needs. And really, that was all that all he required from Retroville.

* * *

How do you rescue someone from their own mind? Cindy yearned to reverse history, but Jimmy had taken the time booth with him. She hadn't the ability to pioneer technology like he. Moreover, she hadn't even the foresight to save him from himself. That kiss couldn't rightfully be dubbed a "kiss", either. It invoked longing in her and she sighed, staring out the window. Jimmy never returned.

_"You have what you want from me."_

_No, Jimmy, I want **you**. The Neutron I fell in love with. The one I lost…_

* * *

Months passed since Jimmy's self imposed exile and, gradually, the town accepted his disappearance. Some called it suicide. He'd never explained where he planned to spend the rest of his days, after all. After a year, Judy and Hugh held a funeral for the boy they'd loved, not the cold one he had become. Jimmy stopped by, invisible, and watched them mourn him. He stared at Cindy, sobbing, and felt nothing.

In his lab, he constructed new inventions and sold them at outrageous prices to the local franchises. While the inventions were indeed useful, he refused to be acknowledged as their inventor. He maintained no one would appreciate him and also desired the cloak of anonymity to prevent becoming a celebrity. He wasn't lonely. He didn't remember what it was like to seek friendship or companions.

He eked out a living by manipulating people because they, in his mind, were incapable of designating otherwise.

Eventually, he ceased checking up on Retroville entirely because while he knew he ought to feel something toward these people, his family and former friends, he experienced nothing. He kept Goddard as a pet, naturally, because he was useful, but other than that, no one was allowed to get close to him. As he previously stated, there was no point in friendship or companions. Love was a weakness.

And Jimmy Neutron was not weak. He was impenetrable, stoic, and, above all, a genius. What more did he need? Nothing and no one.


End file.
